What a weak and it is only Tuesday...

Today was the first day of my career development program at the Unemployment Center. Me and Lyuda have been working very hard to translate all the material so that I can try to speak in Russian and so that the participants can understand what I am saying. We finally got most of the English done a few weeks ago and we have translated the first 2 sessions. It is coming along! I was frantic last week because as Lyuda and I were translating this it seemed almost impossible a task. How am "I" going to do instruct a class in Russian with my limited language ability. I thought by doing this my language would improve but it probably works better if I know more language first. Well things don't always happen in the order you would like it to in the Peace Corps.

I honestly, do not know how people have done anything over the years. I mean nowadays we have google translate, which is horrible but we have it, to help us with translating documents. Not to mention the amount of English speaking Ukrainians running around. There are more than you would think! I mean thank goodness for them but just imagine being a volunteer, a community development volunteer mind you, say about 19 years ago or even 10 or maybe even 5 years ago! I mean how did anything get done??

Well we did it! It was a good class and all the participants liked it. Thank you to all my helpers you know who you are and you rock it! The activities were really cool and the participants especially like the one where we split the groups into teams and one team explains the specifics of a drawing and the other team has to draw what they say. That was a lot of fun. We did it in our English club the night before to practice and it was great. It is a really fun activity and you learn a little bit about team building at the same time.

The volunteers of Konotop have nominated Lyuda to be like Ukrainian counterpart of the year (I just made that up) for the 50th anniversary celebrations coming up in June and she more than deserves this! That poor woman is doing everything for me. She translates documents, translates what I say to people and what other people say to me, helps lead and translate my career development classes and is interpreting my conversations with my counterpart while we write a project for my hosting organization. I mean she is super woman in my eyes and I wouldn't be able to exist as a volunteer without her. Words can not describe how thankful I am to her for what she has allowed me to accomplish here. I can only be grateful that she is learning some things from me. For example she told me today that one of the things she has learned from me is confidence. Anyone who knows me knows that is so true! I know you are all shaking your heads right now while reading this. You know when I really want to do something I do it and I don't usually care who is in my way. Care is a strong word but I think you know what I mean! She talks to people she would never have come in contact with before, she knows so much about the Peace Corps and some of our processes, she should be able to write a grant with her eyes closed when we are done and as far as knowing how to find a good job and having the skills to get one, namely in the US, she will be an expert at the end of my 10 week program!! Now I sound like an infomertial!

The best part about the last two days and the previous week while working so hard on our projects Lyuda and I have had some great laughs. We literally break out laughing at some of the dumbest things and it is great because it means that we don't take things so seriously and I know I have a tendancy to forget that! Today before we went into our lesson we were doing tongue twisters. She asked me about Peter Piper so I looked them up online and we were practicing tongue twisters and it was hilarious. It was a good way to break the nervousness! It is the little things. She is like an American disguised as a Ukrainian. She has hung out with us so much you honestly wouldn't know the difference. Sometimes when we meet new people in town they assume at first that she is another volunteer. Her English is so good and she always speaks English to us when she is with us. I only hear Russian and Ukrainian because she is translating for me.

In other news an actual American (not PCV) came to visit my friend Rose this week. It was awesome and so was she. Us Americans got together on Saturday night for a house warming party. One of my fellow PCVs moved into a new apartment a few weeks ago and some of us hadn't seen it yet. Konotop really is the party spot. There is always someone passing through town. This weekend is the second camp excite for the year and most of the volunteers in the oblast will come here this weekend. Too bad I will be in the Carpathians skiing!

Next week on Friday (March 3) I get to have a dinner party with my tutor who speaks English, her husband and her cousin (aka anchor man). He is a friend of mine and he worked for the Konotop local channel as a news anchor. They want to come over and have an "American" meal. The pressure is on! As long as they bring lots o wino! I am thinking about making chilli and brownies for desert! Yum!!

I told you so...

I was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday and I can't seem to get this one question out of my head. What motivated me to join the Peace Corps? Well it is such a distant memory I am not so sure why. I had lots of reasons. I wanted a different life. One that meant something to me. I wanted to wake up everyday and be proud of what I was doing. I wanted to have some meaning in my life and fight for something that was worth fighting for. I wanted to volunteer on a full time basis and help people less fortunate. I guess the reason why it stuck with me is that the reporter was looking for something like "JFKs speach touched me when he gave it 50 years ago". Well that wasn't it for me. I am sure it was for some people. I haven't always wanted to join the Peace Corps. It wasn't a child hood dream for me. However, living in another country and learning a new language and culture was. I also have always had the desire to help out when I can. I really enjoyed working with children in New York but I don't do that here. It is difficult sometimes to be proud of what I am doing because quite frankly most of the things I will be proud of haven't happened yet.

It's almost been a year and I am finally working on projects with people in my community. I am writing a project with my counterpart to improve the way disadvantaged citizens receive information about changes in legislation and social security which will help them receive the benefits that are available to them. Together we will write a project that hopefully will be funded by USAID through the Peace Corps. Then we will work on the implementation after we receive the funding. It sounds like a lot of fun and I am excited to be a part of it.

Meanwhile, I am implementing a career development program with another counterpart of mine at the Unemployment Center. We start next Tuesday and I will be conducting the classes in Russian. I will be covering topics such as resume writing, cover letter writing, interviewing, public speaking, business etiquet, etc. We are focusing on women's empowerment and we will also cover topics such as HIV/AIDS, domestic violence and combatting human trafficking. The men in my town were pretty upset that the program is not open to them but right now more women are unemployed than men which might always be the case but it is time someone stood up for them. So men you will have to wait!

In addition, I am coordinating the efforts of our 50th anniversary celebration in Ukraine. Together with our creative team we are coming up with project ideas and promoting them throughout the PCV network here. We want to put together a documentary that encompasses what PCVs our doing now and what they have been doing in this country for the last 19 years. Unfortunately, Ukraine has only been a part of Peace Corps for 19 years. The projects are fun and exciting.

Not to stop there...I am also involved in an uber exciting campaign to stop human trafficking in Ukraine. The campaign is to raise awareness of the hotline number assigned to Ukraine which is 527. Anyone can dial this number from their cell phones for free if they are at risk of being trafficking, are in the midst of being trafficking or after they break away. Even if you think someone else is you can dial this number and you will get trained professionals who can help. We are all very excited about this. We are still in our brainstorming session but things are coming together quickly. We already have an organization that will provide some funding for us!

I believe that covers some of the big projects I am involved in now. That is a little update of the goings on! There haven't been many cultural exchanges with me and Ukrainians lately. I spent a lot of time away from site the past two months. I had a few vacations and then I was in Chernigiv for language refresher and then Kiev for almost two weeks attending working group and committee meetings. I am quite the joiner here. I just really want to be a part of as many volunteer projects as I can that make me happy. I am excited about a lot of what other volunteers are doing and if there are things that I can do in collaboration with others that is even better. Now that things are coming along at site I am even more busy but that took a while to put into place. If I could do it all over again I would worry much less about "doing things" andI would have focused more on my relationships with people. I can hear it now...Peace Corps staff telling me "I told you so..."!

Eight months at site and it has finally happened. I am being asked to do projects. People are finally ready to work. That is good! I was just starting to enjoy not doing anything. So I am involved in just about everything I can be in Peace Corps and now I have to pull my weight at site. Better late than never! Hence the reason I haven't been posting anything. I have just about lost my head.
I am hoping to corale the PCVs of Ukraine to do something for the 50 years of Peace Corps. Many of you who read my blog were around when JFK started this venture. Well now your friend or relative is celebrating 50 years!! I am here for this. It is quite amazing. When I was asked to coordinate our efforts by the staff I didn't know exactly what this would mean. This could be a really fun and exciting project. I have spent most of this week on the phone with PCVs I have never met trying to get them enthused about it. Everyone is busy right now it is hard to find the motivation to add one more thing on the list. But we are here at a memorable time and we should take advantage.
Of course next year is 20 years of Peace Corps in Ukraine! Another memorable time. But most of us 38ers will be headed out so we probably won't be as excited. Besides I have already suggested they get RPCVs involved in that project. Also, they should reach out to Ukrainians that have had volunteers. That would be a fun project too. I don't know what I am talking about I am certain I would have or maybe even will help with that too.
I wasn't much of a joiner when I was young. I always wanted to but I never did. Most of the things I wanted to join cost money. Money that I didn't have nor my family. I spent a lot of time at home with my parents or hanging or hanging out with my friends. I wasn't a cheerleader (at least not in high school) and I never played any sports. I was on the swimteam but long before I got to highschool! It is weird because now all I do is join join join. Everytime someone looks like they need help with something I want to offer. I caught myself doing it today. This woman from one of the youth centers in town drops by my work. I haven't seen her in months. I did the human trafficking project with her. Anyway she stops by and she tells me about this HIV/AIDS project they are doing in March. Basically, the girls from the medical school go around to each of the schools in town and do presentations about HIV/AIDS. Pretty much what a PCV would do. Anway of course I say "well let me know if you need any help"! I can't help myself. I just want to be doing everything. It doesn't bother me to busy. I think it bothers everyone else for some reason. But I certainly don't mind. If I am bored I get lazy and then I don't do anything. I am more productive when I have lots of things to do. I might joke around that I don't like it but I do. I enjoy keeping my mind busy and experiencing new things. Meeting new people! It is why I chose to join the Peace Corps. So why am I defending myself?
We just got done with language refreshers. Language refresher happens two times a year for Ukrainian and Russian. All the PCVs who want to attend apply and then they go to a week long camp where we refresh our language with classes on random topics. We also have the option of joining cultural classes and there is movie night where we watch a movie in the language. In my case everything is in Russian. It is a good chance to work on things that you want to improve and of course a time to speak English with other Americans as if any of us need more of that!
I had the opportunity to learn a Ukrainian cultural dance which was awesome fun. Besides the fact that I got to see my fellow PCV (Jim) who is hilarious dance! And my dance partner, Dee - there aren't enough men in PC, had me laughing so hard we actually had to stop dancing for a few minutes so I could catch my breath. I don't know what it is about that woman but everytime we are together something hilarious happens. I hadn't laughed that hard in months. And honestly there really is no reason we just did something funny!
I didn't sit in on the movie nights in completion. I prefered to be hanging out with Americans and speaking English but I did watch the first part of the movie on the first night. It was called, in English, "Irony of Fate". It is a movie that they play in Ukraine every year on New Year's. From what I saw of it it was about the fact that during the USSR times everything was the same. The buildings were the same, the streets were the same, etc. It starts off with a guy and his fiance and they are planning their wedding for that night when he goes to the sauna with his friends that day and ends up getting really drunk. Now he lives in Moscow and after drinking way too much ends up on a plane to ...crap...I can't remember but it is another city in Russia and an easy city that I should not be forgeting. Anyway he doesn't remember the plane or the airport or anything but he goes to what he thinks is his apartment because it is the exact same address. Obviously after a long time the woman who does live there is able to convince him that he is in the wrong place. He tries to save his potential marriage while destroying hers and then in the end I think they live happily ever after but I didn't stay to find out. It is a funny Russian traditional film!
I thought about something while I was at the language refresher. I have met some really awesome individuals here. There are people here who have had just fantastic lives and the stories are amazing. I know they tell you this in the beginning, that you will meet amazing people that you might end up knowing the rest of your life but you really don't know that until you get here. Even then you don't know that.
It has been almost a year and I am starting to feel really comfortable here. My life is Ukraine for the next 17 months. I really do hope that I stay in touch with some of these people. We still have a long way to go but it will be over before you know it!